The Sunnydale Ripper
by dkerr
Summary: Ripper style murders in Sunnydale. PG for violence
1. A girl murdered

Title The Sunnydale Ripper  
Disclaimer – The usual, I own no one and nothing associated with BTVS, or ATS, which belong to Whedon, UPN, FOX, etc. I accept no remuneration for the fun I have with them.  
  
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Xander was early. Something he'd sworn never to be, because that meant being on site with foreknowledge and not being able to do anything about it. Which really sucked, because his years with the Slayer had really reinforced his desire to be all protective and keep people alive if he could. Except Albert had drummed into him the importance of people dying when they were supposed to die, and when he was sent to collect that was all he was supposed to do, and if he tried to interfere there would be two deaths instead of one and he wouldn't be going to any of the happy places. Most definitely not to Heaven. Sometimes life sucked.  
  
Like now when he recognized the girl he'd been sent to collect. Sarah Livens, one of Dawn's circle of close friends. He really wanted to break rules. Instead he just sat, watched and waited.  
  
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Sarah Livens dragged on her cigarette and watched the word go by. School was out, it was too early for an appearance at the Bronze, and that wimp Dawn was not around. Really, that girl was paranoid, always warning her friends about going out at night. What a wuss, and it wasn't night yet anyway. Okay she was in an alley, but she was standing right next to a busy street. She dropped the cigarette, stubbed it out, and released the smoke through her nostrils.  
  
What could possibly happen to her.  
  
The answer came in the form of a black gloved hand that clamped itself over hoer mouth and hauled her back. Not far, just enough for her to catch a glimpse of a white scarf, just before she felt a sharp slashing across her throat. Then she felt nothing, as the bloodied knife was withdrawn from her neck, lowered and plunged in just beneath her rib cage before tearing down. It was over in a matter of seconds, her body falling even as life fled.  
  
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Xander stepped out of the shadows as Sarah's soul began to emerge from the physical shell it had once been attached to. He had watched the whole thing, from start to finish, hoping to impress the description of that assailant in his memory. Except that the assailant had been covered in black, except for that white scarf, and very little of the man was showing. Just enough to give the impression of white skin. 


	2. Willow's Cousin Amanda

"Hey Will," Xander entered the Magic Box Danger room, and pulled a chair out from the research table. "Got something for you, well someone actually."  
  
"Huh?" Willow glanced up from her lap top. Warren had gotten all excited by the Sunnydale Ripper case, and had Willow doing some research. She was quite willing to do so, but Warrens posturing had made her decide to do it where he wasn't, so she had come down to the Magic Box. "There's nobody here but us."  
  
"She's out in the main room, with Anya," Xander informed her, and smiled wanly as Buffy approached the table. "She, uh, was a Slayer. The Slayer after Buffy died the second time."  
  
"Isn't she still a Slayer," asked Buffy. "I always thought this gig lasted till death do you part."  
  
"That's the drill and that's the way it is, except when magick is used to short circuit the process."  
  
"Again huh?"  
  
"When you jumped off that tower, you died. The Slayer essence entered Amanda. Now when Willow, and us, used magick to bring you back the Slayerness, er almost all of it, left Amanda and returned to Buffy."  
  
"Almost all of it?"  
  
"Hey that didn't happen when Buffy died the first time and Kendra was called, or Faith."  
  
"To answer Willow first, I used CPR to restore her life, not magick which, as I said, short circuited the whole thing. Hence we now have a potential Slayer with part of the Slayer essence, the part that announces what she is to all and sundry baddie types who want to build a rep by killing a Slayer, the part that makes her want to go out and slay, but not the part that lets her do anything about it. Buffy came back and bingo she lost Slayer strength, speed, skills, stamina, and had to watch watcher after watcher get tortured and killed. All because she's a target with no means of doing anything about it. So far she's been lucky, but sooner or later that lucks gonna run out, and she, and whoever she's with is gonna die a horrible death."  
  
"So you brought her here so we can protect her?" Buffy looked annoyed. "Haven't we got enough on our plates."  
  
"We do," agreed Xander, "And that's not likely to stop anytime soon. Plus the folks upstairs think she's gonna be real useful in the future so they have a stake in her continued livingness. Normally the Watchers would care for her, but and Watchers have been assigned, but none has survived. Whoever she goes to now is gonna have to be some kind of powerhouse. So the boys upstairs picked out the perfect candidate."  
  
"Who," squeaked Willow, afraid she already the answer.  
  
"Willow," Xander fished a picture and pushed it across the table. "Meet your long lost cousin."  
  
"My wh-what?" Willow looked stunned. "Why me?"  
  
"Well, you were primarily responsible for bringing Buffy back to life. Which is what caused her to not be the Slayer anymore."  
  
"But that was a good thing. Look at all the people Buffy saved since she came back, who Amanda wouldn't because she was somewhere else. Besides, you helped."  
  
"Which is why I'll be acting as her Watcher, even though they'd like you to take primary responsibility for her. As for bringing Buffy back, that wasn't our call to make, even if it was a good thing"  
  
"She was in Hell," Willow snapped. "What kind of Powers are they if they sentence her to Hell after all she's done?"  
  
"Hey not arguing. But it was Buffy who decided where she went after death, by the way she lived and the choices she made while she was alive. The PTB don't have any jurisdiction over that. Once you've made your choices and are dead, there's not much they can do about it."  
  
"And its Buffy who's standing right here, not appreciating being talked about like she's not here."  
  
"Sorry Buff," Xander grinned. "Didn't mean to do that. Just needed to point some things out to Will."  
  
"Which you've done and it still sucks." Willow was upset. "I mean, when are they going to leave me alone. I mean you make a few mistakes, try to end the world and they're on your back forever."  
  
"Hey, I'm just the messenger boy." Xander spread his arms. "You can just say no."  
  
"And what happens to the girl?"  
  
"I phone Social Service and let them find a home for her."  
  
"But she's a target. Won't they still go after her and her family?"  
  
Xander shrugged. "Like Buffy said, we got a lot on out plate. We can't protect everybody."  
  
Willow glared at him. "Payback's a bitch," she snarled.  
  
*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** **** *** **** ***  
  
"Warren," snapped Willow, closing the door to her apartment, after making sure Amanda had gotten all of her stuff inside. "Get out here and make sure you have your skin on."  
  
Amanda stared at her through big brown eyes, and went into a defensive position when Warren entered. She relaxed a bit when cousin Willow's hand toughed her shoulder. A bit but not much.  
  
"This is Amanda Peters," Willow told him. "My cousin, who'll be staying with us. Xander'll be over later to help with her room. There's that big storage room by the office. We can take the wall out between that and the walk in closet."  
  
"Amanda, this is Warren. He's dead and a ghost who'll be haunting my life for whatever's left of it. He's dead cause I killed him, he can tell you about it if you want to. You might see him without his skin, which he doesn't have because I took that away from him when I killed him. You'll just have to get used to it."  
  
Willow spun away and headed for the office. 


	3. A reenactment

"Your really into this detective gig aren't you/" Buffy hopped up onto a crate and watched as Willow placed talismans around the corner of the alley where the girl hjad been murdered.   
  
"Not much choice." Willow studied the placing of one of the talisman, and pushed it ever so slightly to her left. I have to make this pay somehow, and Warren has maxed my cards out, and it's not like he can help pay for them. Being all skinless, dead and gross."  
  
"So kick his sorry ass out." Buffy glanced warily up the alley, looking for any movement. "You had a bad spell, we all do. You shouldn't have to pay for the rest of your life."  
  
Willow laughed bitterly. "And let them get me some other way? Besides, Xander said the PTB really want this to happen. The agency I mean."  
  
"So let them get somebody else to run it" Buffy shrugged. "Just because they want it doesn't mean you have to do it. Xander's always harping about free will. You got it you use it."  
  
"I got free will in this life," Willow said glumly. "Maybe not so much in the next. I walk away and I add to that big ball of karma coming my way. Face it, I went off the deep end. Tried to end the world, remember. So I get to be lucky girl. Now be quiet. I'm ready to give this a try."  
  
Buffy shut her mouth and watched as Willow moved towards one of the points of the circle marked by the talisman. Willow mentally ran threw the spell and began.  
  
It didn't take long for the translucent figure of a smoking girl formed at the corner. She was watching the streets and didn't see the figure coming up behind her. A figure of a man, equally as translucent as the girl. His left hand clamped over the girls jaw, pulling her head back against his body as the right hand circled around front.   
  
"freeze," commanded Willow. She glanced at Buffy. "I didn't really want to see the next part anyway."  
  
"Just what exactly is you are doing." Buffy glanced wryly at the figures, now frozen as they were when Willow gave the command. "I didn't know you could do this."  
  
"I didn't either, that is not until Warren did some research and decided that each action leaves a sort of shadow of itself." Willow fished around in her bag and pulled out a pen and notebook. Green for Tuesday. "Usually these shadows fade away really fast, but if they represent a really intense action, emotionally I guess, they take longer. So I figured out a spell to enhance these shadows so we can see them."  
  
"Sort of an instant replay."  
  
"Uh yeah, sort of." Willow flipped open the book and started making notes. "Black hat, cloak, gloves, white scarf. Definitely male, average height, right handed. See how he's got the knife in his right hand. Looks like he's had some experience at this."  
  
"Victorianish" Buffy hopped off the crate and moved in for a closer look.  
  
"Huh?" Willow looked like her.  
  
"Victorian. You know black top hat, black cloak." Buffy took another look. "You know, like those pictures we had in school texts. Too bad you can't really see what he looks like."  
  
Willow waved a hand and the figures faded into non-existence. "Too far gone I guess. Beside we got all we can get."  
  
"So all we need to do is find a murderer that likes to play dress up. Should stand out in the crowd."  
  
"You'd think." Willow returned the book to her bag. "Wanna walk me home," she asked. "So I can report to Warren and he can get his, uh, gray matter working on this."  
  
"Sure," Buffy picked up her bag and slung it over the shoulder. "We'll be passing the Expresso Pump on the way. We could stop in." 


End file.
